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GPatch


GPatch is a shell command. The format is



GPatch <old file> <patch file> [<new file> | DIRECT [BACKUP <backupfile>]] [RECURSIVE] [NOVERSION | QUIET]



GPatch creates the new file using the old file and the patch file.

It selects the matching patches by file size and CRC signature of the old
file.


In case of errors GPatch displays an error message.

Any fatal error produces a return code of 15, and if the result is a corrupt
new file then it will be deleted.


Instead of the file name of the new file you can use the option DIRECT.
Then GPatch will build the new file in a temporary file and replaces the old file
with this.

With the additional option BACKUP you can specify a file name for a
backup of the old file.


The argument RECURSIVE selects the recursive operating mode. In this mode
GPatch tries again to patch after each successful patch until no matching
patches are found, using the new file as old file.

You can use this operating mode if you do not want to store all your old
program versions.

Then the patch file should not contain the changes of all old versions
to the newest version, but the changes from each version to the next.


The argument NOVERSION suppresses the version information print and the
argument QUIET suppresses all text output (except error messages).